


Better Than Ice Cream

by Dispatches (orphan_account)



Category: Marvel, Runaways
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-10
Updated: 2010-05-10
Packaged: 2017-10-09 09:38:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/85793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Dispatches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "It's not often - not often at all - but sometimes they'd go out and do perfectly normal teenager things, like going to buy food for the week, and every time it'd feel new and exciting and different. (And they'd hold hands on the street.)"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Than Ice Cream

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: For [](http://community.livejournal.com/marveloustales/profile)[**marveloustales**](http://community.livejournal.com/marveloustales/). Title from "Ice Cream" by Sarah McLachlan.
> 
> Takes place between issue 21 and issue 22 of Volume 2 (after "Dead Means Dead" but before "Live Fast").

Xavin had pet names for her: "my bride", "splendid one", something in the Skrull language that came out in translation as "true form of the green snake that lives in the underwater caves of Tarnax VII", which Xavin assured her was very romantic even if it sounded ridiculous in English. Of all of them, Karolina's favourite was "beloved", because it was true: every time she looked in Xavin's eyes she could see Xavin's love for her.

It was a lot to live up to. The first time they'd met, Xavin had beaten up her friends, and then gone down on one knee and called her "magnificent one", and that had set the tone for much of their relationship. It could be exhausting, but it was never dull.

Which was more than could be said for life in the Hostel.

"I'm booooooooooored!"

Nico didn't look up from her book, but the furrow between her eyebrows grew deeper. "Molly, quit it!"

"Hey, Xavin, can we play Risk again?"

"I would rather not subject myself to your insistence on playing outwith the stated rules."

Molly glared at Xavin, the eyes on the brim of her hat seeming to narrow in sympathy. "What does that mean? Is that even a real word?"

Karolina's eyes darted nervously between the two. "Honey, Molly doesn't cheat -- "

"Wait, did he -- did she say I was cheating?!"

" -- she's just freakishly good at board games. Like I told you -- "

"You can't call me a freak! Gert says that's an anti-mutant word, and..."

Molly's voice trailed off. Nico looked suddenly bleak, and Karolina could feel the pain of Gert's death kicking in all over again, like a punch to a wound that was already bleeding. She clenched her fists and took a deep breath to keep from bursting into tears.

Xavin touched her shoulder. "Perhaps," she said a little more loudly than usual, "we should take Molly out for a walk."

"That's a good idea," said Nico. "Molly, do you want to go out for ice cream?"

"Uh... I guess? Yeah. Ice cream!" Molly bounced off the couch and took Karolina's hand. "C'mon!"

"You coming, Nico?"

Nico shook her head. "You guys enjoy yourselves. I... I'm going to talk to Victor."

Karolina nodded and took Xavin's elbow with her free hand. "Ice cream for Molly and coffee for us," she said, glancing back at Nico as the three of them trooped out.

Maybe Nico was going to talk to Victor. Maybe she wasn't.

*

While Molly drove the store clerks insane by taking samples of all 31 flavours in a seemingly random order, Xavin settled into a booth opposite Karolina and eyed her Caramel Cappuccino Blast with suspicion. "This is _not_ an espresso macchiato," she said.

"It's as close as Baskin-Robbins gets," said Karolina, "which as close as you're going to get until they rebuild all the Starbucks that guy smashed up."

"Such pointless destruction," said Xavin mournfully before taking a tentative sip.

Karolina leaned back to watch her as her face registered curiosity, surprise, and finally pleasure. She wanted to say something, like _it's good to see you relaxing_, or _I like you like this_, or _you're so cute when you're happy_, but that would have spoiled the moment. Xavin was so guarded so much of the time that it seemed wrong to make her aware of the way she looked in the rare moments when she let herself wind down.

And for once, Karolina wanted to be the one who was looking, not the one being looked at.

Xavin looked up from her drink. "It is not as sublime as the caramel macchiato, but it will serve as an adequate substitute for now."

She said this with the same air of solemn importance that she had once given to interplanetary diplomatic pronouncements, which made the blob of cream on her nose look even cuter. Karolina bit the insides of her cheeks to keep from laughing (Xavin could be prickly, sometimes, if you laughed at her), and wiped the cream off with a stroke of her thumb. "You'll get cream in your hair if you're not careful," she said, brushing back the bangs from Xavin's forehead.

The strands of hair she was touching rapidly shortened, right before her eyes, and Karolina blinked and resisted the urge to snatch her hand away. "I keep forgetting you can do that," she said softly, "but, uh, should you be doing that kind of thing in public?"

Xavin frowned. "I do not like hiding what I am." (Was it her imagination, or did Xavin's face harden as he said that, the jaw growing square, the lips growing thin? It must be. Xavin's transformations were never quite that fast.)

"But sometimes you have to. _We_ have to. I mean, look at me."

Xavin's face softened. (But had it really grown hard?) "I love to look at you," she said in a low voice, "especially in your true form. Did I ever tell you about the snakes of the underwater caverns in my homeworld?"

"Is that about that name you called me that I can't pronounce?"

"I did not tell you why it is considered an endearment! There is a legend about the snakes: a story I was told when I was only a hatchling. The angle of the rocks and the caves' position on the surface of the planet means that they are exposed to sunlight for only a few minutes every seven years. The legend has it that if one were to visit the caves at that time, and if there were a snake in the part of the cave that the sun shines upon, the snake's scales would refract the sunlight like prisms. They would shine with all the colours of the spectrum, like -- "

"Like a rainbow?"

"Like _you_." She looked down, took a long sip of her drink. "I... was never sure how I could tell you -- on my homeworld, it was considered the most perfect metaphor for love. My people often hide their true faces, even from close kin. To show one's true form is a sign of great trust. It is said that the eyes of love display the beloved's true form to the lover, just as the sun displays the true beauty of the snakes. When I first saw you, shining in all the colours the sun can display -- it was as if I could see love itself, standing embodied before me."

Karolina's heart clenched. "B-but -- we'd only just met!" she protested, a horde of emotions battling each other in her heart: joy and guilt and pleasure and fear and other feelings she couldn't name.

Xavin smiled. "I am not saying that I truly knew you then, or that I knew you enough to love you in truth. And yet, perhaps it was overly romantic, but I could not believe we would not be together after I had seen what I had seen."

Karolina stared, not knowing what to say, desperately wishing for Molly to come running towards them and break the silence. A surreptitious glance around the store revealed Molly sitting contentedly eating ice cream in another booth. _Princess, you picked a fine time to learn the meaning of discretion_, she thought with some irritation.

"I don't know what to say," she said at last. "You..."

Xavin took her hand. "Say nothing, if you would rather be silent. I know I am not the one you would have chosen -- "

"That doesn't mean I don't -- "

" -- nonetheless, we are here now. We are together now." She leaned back, looking around the store. "This is not the life I would have chosen, had I had a choice," she said, her free hand curling around the base of her drink, "but it is a good life."

"Yeah," said Karolina, the word coming out as a puff of breath, somewhere between a whisper and a sigh.

*

(She wanted to ask _do I ever see your true form?_

She thought that maybe she did, sometimes, but she wasn't sure which one it was.

She decided that for now, it would be better if she didn't ask.)

*

Molly was quiet and subdued on the way back to La Brea; she claimed that when she tried to move at her usual pace she jolted the ice cream in her belly and felt sick.

"It was not wise to let her eat a third portion," said Xavin.

"I was _trying_ to teach her a lesson about restraint," said Karolina.

"Don't lie!" said Molly with a disgruntled snort. "You guys were just too busy being all _romantic_ to notice. But, but, I'm fine!" she added hastily.

"_Sure_ you are," said Karolina, and Xavin's lips twitched. Karolina aimed a nudge at Xavin's ribs; Xavin dodged with more-than-human speed and poked Karolina's side in what felt like the most ticklish spot on her body. Karolina shrieked, and even as she chased Xavin to retaliate, she felt a burst of joy so fierce it was almost frightening.

_I love her,_ she thought, and it came as a surprise -- not just that she could feel it, but that it was, really, that simple; that a fancy coffee drink and an evening walk and a ticklefight could make her understand it.

"You guys are really gross," said Molly, staring at them disdainfully, her arms crossed over her chest.

Karolina stifled the last of her giggles and slipped her hand into Xavin's. "We're just being affectionate," she said.

"Yeah, whatever. Man, I can't wait till the honeymoon period is over and you two start being all boring and grown-up."

"That's never gonna happen," Karolina murmured.

Xavin laced their fingers together and smiled at her, and Karolina thought she could see a glint of green in her eyes.

[end]


End file.
